Serving Chicago Businesses Virtually
Fractional CFO and CMO — Chicago and the Collar Counties, IL
Local Fractional provides partner-led fractional CFO and CMO services to Chicago businesses generating $2M–$50M in revenue. The Fractional CFO Partnership is a flat $5,000–$10,000+/month retainer (with a lighter $2,500/month Fractional Executive Advisory tier for businesses with clean books), delivered remote-first to Chicago businesses, with travel for board meetings, planning, and other key on-site moments. Co-founders Chris Gauvin and Taber Wetz lead every engagement directly.
Dallas-based financial and marketing leadership, delivered virtually to Chicago businesses.
Why would a Chicago business hire a CFO based in Texas?
It should matter far less than who does the work. We are a Texas firm, we do not keep an office in Illinois, and Chicago engagements run remote-first with travel for board meetings, lender conversations and diligence — the things that genuinely warrant being in the room.
What is worth interrogating is seniority and continuity. A great many firms match you to a consultant from a bench, and the person who wins the engagement is not the person who runs it. Every Local Fractional engagement is led personally by a founding partner — Chris Gauvin or Taber Wetz — with controller-level support underneath where the books need rebuilding rather than just reporting. The same person is in the room in month one and in month thirty.
Cloud accounting means a remote CFO sees precisely what an in-office one would. What actually determines whether the arrangement works is cadence — a standing session where decisions get made — rather than proximity. See how the engagement model works; we price on scope rather than postcode.
Chicago has an unusually deep bench of mid-market industrial and distribution businesses, many of them second or third generation. Those are the engagements we do our best work in: profitable, well run, and carrying a finance function that was built for a smaller company.
The Chicago Business Landscape
Chicago is a manufacturing and logistics powerhouse — the backbone of the Midwest economy. It is also the second-largest metro in the country for small business formation, which means there is no shortage of companies reaching the stage where they need real financial infrastructure but are not ready for a full-time CFO hire.
The industries here are diverse: trades and home services companies, professional services firms, CPG brands, and a growing B2B SaaS sector. Private equity activity is strong in the Chicago market, particularly in home services and trades roll-ups. If you are a business owner fielding acquisition interest or thinking about an exit in the next few years, having clean financials and a clear growth narrative is not optional — it is what determines your multiple.
Illinois tax complexity adds another layer. Between state taxes, local obligations, and regulatory requirements, financial leadership is not a luxury for Chicago businesses — it is a necessity. The companies that treat it as an afterthought are the ones that get surprised at tax time or leave money on the table during a transaction.
Chicago and Collar County Areas We Serve
Chicagoland is served as one market on identical terms — no travel surcharge, and no difference in access between a West Loop client and one in Joliet. What changes between these areas is the shape of the business rather than the level of service.
The Loop & West Loop
Professional services, financial firms and technology. Partner distributions, project-level profitability and management accounts an investor or lender will accept without a rewrite are the standing asks.
North Side — Lincoln Park, Bucktown & Logan Square
Consumer brands, food and beverage, hospitality and creative studios. Channel-level margin and wholesale terms drive the decisions, and both are usually missing from the monthly close.
Naperville & DuPage County
Technology, professional services and established family-held operators. Frequently first-time CFO engagements where the immediate need is a close that closes on time and a 13-week cash view.
Schaumburg & the Northwest suburbs
Distribution, light manufacturing and B2B services. Inventory timing and customer concentration carry most of the cash risk, and neither is visible on a standard P&L.
Evanston & the North Shore
Professional services, healthcare practices and a substantial nonprofit and institutional sector. Restricted funds and grant reporting are their own specialism rather than a variation on commercial work.
Oak Brook & the western suburbs
Corporate services, logistics and multi-entity operators. Consolidated reporting across entities is usually the reporting that is missing rather than the reporting that is wrong.
South Side & the industrial corridor
Manufacturing, metals and transport, much of it second or third generation. Equipment financing decisions and the cash timing around them drive more of the finance workload than anything on the P&L.
Joliet, Aurora & Will County
Logistics, warehousing and construction scaling with the intermodal corridor. Job costing and work-in-progress schedules are almost always the gap between the books and reality — see our construction and contracting practice.
How Virtual Delivery Works
Same time zone, same working hours, same responsiveness. Our Chicago clients get weekly check-ins, real-time financial reporting, and strategic guidance that is indistinguishable from having someone in the office — because the only thing that changes is the physical location.
Every engagement starts with a deep-dive into your business: financials, operations, competitive landscape, and goals. From there, we build a working rhythm — typically weekly or biweekly calls, shared dashboards, and async communication through Slack or email as needed.
The virtual model is not new for us. It is how we have delivered results for clients across the country since day one. You get the same rigor and responsiveness as a local hire — without the local price tag.
What does a fractional CMO do for a Chicago business?
The short version: a fractional CMO decides where marketing money goes and answers for what it returns. Positioning, pricing the offer, channel choices, and the less popular half of the job, which is shutting down activity that only looks productive.
This runs as its own engagement under our marketing partner. No CFO required, though the combination has teeth, because finance can confirm what marketing claims. Spend on one line, revenue it produced on the next.
Chicago engagements skew toward industrial and distribution businesses whose pipeline is relationship-driven and almost entirely unmeasured, consumer brands whose blended acquisition cost hides one channel subsidising three, and professional-services firms competing on reputation without any system for building one.
See how the fractional CMO engagement works, or read about the CFO side if finance is the more urgent gap.
Who you will actually work with
Worth being concrete about, because it is the difference that matters most. A great many firms match you to a consultant from a bench, and the person who wins the engagement is not the person who runs it. Here every engagement is led personally by a founding partner — the same person in month one and in month thirty.
Chris Gauvin
Co-Founder & Fractional CFO
Leads finance engagements personally — monthly close, cash-flow forecasting, lender and board reporting, and exit preparation.
Taber Wetz
Co-Founder & Fractional CFO
Leads finance engagements personally, with a focus on forecasting, pricing and margin work, and preparing a business to be sold.
Melissa Valdez
Fractional CMO
Leads the marketing practice — positioning, channel mix and the funnel maths that says which spend actually produced revenue.
Explainers
The questions that come up before anyone signs anything, answered in one picture each.
Fractional vs Interim vs Full-Time CFO
Three different instruments. Which one your situation actually calls for.
What a Fractional CFO Costs
The three tiers, what each includes, and why we price on scope not location.
CFO + CMO: Who Owns What
Two silos, one bridge. Marketing knows what it spent; finance knows what came back.
Your First 90 Days
Books cleaned, a cash view you can rely on, then the decisions those two change.
The 13-Week Cash Flow Forecast
Cash in, cash out, and the balance week by week — far enough ahead to act.
Chicago and the Collar Counties — Common Questions
What fractional CFO services are available in Chicago, IL?
Monthly close and management reporting, 13-week cash-flow forecasting, budgeting and variance analysis, KPI scorecards, lender and board reporting, pricing and margin work, and exit or sale preparation. Engagements run as a fixed monthly scope rather than an hourly rate, so the cost is predictable from month one.
Do you have an office in Chicago?
No, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. We are a Texas firm serving clients across the country. Chicago engagements run remote-first with travel for board meetings, lender conversations and diligence. Cloud accounting means a remote CFO sees precisely what an in-office one would; what determines whether it works is cadence, not proximity.
What is a virtual CFO, and is it different from a fractional CFO?
They are the same job under two names. Virtual emphasises remote delivery; fractional emphasises that the seat is part-time. What actually differs between providers is seniority and continuity — who does the work, and whether it is the same person every month.
Do you serve Naperville, Schaumburg, Evanston and the collar counties?
Yes, on identical terms. There is no travel surcharge and no difference in access between a West Loop client and one in Joliet or Aurora. Chicagoland is served as one market.
Do you work with Chicago nonprofits?
Yes. Nonprofit finance carries requirements a commercial book does not — restricted versus unrestricted funds, grant reporting, functional expense allocation, and a board that has to read the statements without an accounting background. We treat that as its own specialism rather than as a variation on commercial reporting.
Do you offer fractional CMO services in Chicago as well?
Yes, and it is a separate discipline led by our marketing partner rather than a CFO wearing a second hat. It runs alongside a CFO engagement or entirely on its own. Chicago industrial and distribution businesses in particular tend to have pipelines built on long relationships with almost no measurement of which activity actually produces revenue.
We are a third-generation family business. Is this a fit?
It is one of the most common shapes we work with in Chicago. The honest question is whether you want someone to own the numbers or to validate them — we sit in the leadership team rather than delivering a report from outside it. The first ninety days are usually unglamorous: a close you can trust, a 13-week cash view, and a short list of the decisions those two things change.
How much does a fractional CFO cost in Chicago?
We price on scope rather than on location, so Chicago rates match our Texas rates. Most engagements land well below the fully loaded cost of a full-time CFO once salary, bonus, benefits and payroll taxes are counted.
Ready to Talk?
No pitch, just a conversation about your business and where you want to take it. We will figure out together if there is a fit.
Book a Free ConsultationOr email info@localfractional.com